Letters to the Editor
We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length, and clarity. Send letters to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. MORE THAN A FEW BAD APPLES I agree with Ron Vose that “It makes me feel…
The other debate
At 10:15 p.m., in an empty auditorium, save for some university-relations staffers, audiovisual guys, and a handful of supporters, Rich Whitney, the Green Party candidate for Illinois governor, finally got his chance to speak. On the same stage where major-party contenders Gov. Rod Blagojevich and state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka had just wrapped up the…
Holy hyperbole, Family Man!
I work for a newspaper that has a circulation of 30,000. I have three co-workers on the editorial side, two so young, I could be their mother. Our “newsroom” is a basement. The “view” from my window is the backside of a Dumpster. I’m not bewailing these conditions. The kids I work with are supercool,…
Ready for ravioli?
“What’s your favorite cuisine?” It’s a question I’m occasionally asked in my cooking classes — and one I’m never comfortable answering. Do I have to choose? My answer at any given moment may depend on the season, a cookbook I’ve been reading, a restaurant at which I’ve recently eaten, recipes I’ve been developing, a trip…
Growing Pains
On a brisk late-summer day, two blond girls wearing university sweatshirts linger in a campus coffeehouse, sipping frappuccinos. Nearby, a pair of young women converse in Chinese and a young man with the physique of a small forward, sporting a hoodie with the university logo, flashes a peace sign to a friend. It’s a perfectly…
Muddy waters
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his staff have tried to muddy the waters on the question of that now-infamous $1,500 check from his friend by seizing on the flip-flopping of the friend’s wife, Beverly Ascaridis. Beverly Ascaridis, you will recall, got a state job about the same time that her husband, Mike Ascaridis, wrote the governor…
Scorsese scores with The Departed
Martin Scorsese’s films are never less than visually compelling. His last two big screen efforts, Gangs of New York and The Aviator, benefited from the filmmaker’s trademark attention to detail, as well as his ability to elicit complex performances from his cast while telling a compelling story splashed across a vast canvas. Yet, as much…
Cruisin’ instead of mixing it up
SINGLES ONLY Sleepy Brown has the 9-to-5 blues. (We’ll play along.) After a long day of the grind, Brown and Big Boi cut out at 4:59 pm — how scandalous! — and make their way over to the club for happy-hour mingling. “Margarita,” the first single from Brown’s new album, Mr. Brown, is a smooth…
Saving summer bulbs
Dahlias, cannas, caladiums, and gladiolus make great additions to our gardens, but the bulbs of these summer bloomers have trouble with Illinois’ harsh winters and need special attention in the fall. By digging and then storing tender bulbs in a warmer area for the winter months, you can save your bulbs from year to year,…
Will the ban kill the bar star?
Now that we’re almost three weeks into the Springfield smoking ban, one thing is certain: The bars are clear of smoke. Clothes smell fresh; throats don’t tickle in the morning. Unfortunately, most patrons seem to have cleared out as well — as we wags like to say, the crowds have gone up in smoke. The…
Of mice and maestros
Originally published in 1970, the children’s book The Orchestra Mice had been out of print for decades when its author, Springfield resident Jacqueline Jackson, got an unexpected phone call. The woman on the other end of the line was Martha Hicks, an American teacher of wind instruments at an arts high school in Bielefeld, Germany.…
People’s Poetry
friendquotepoem #4 sold a lot still came back from peoria with a bunch of stuff but the real boat-anchors went home with someone else our whole street is having a yard sale soon I may drag out all the techno-gizmos anti-gravity generators spacial distortion analyzers tachyon field suppressors quasi-pseudo-random transmogrifiers and my absorbatron and see…
Clearing the air
A poll released today by the Illinois Licensed Beverage Association, a trade group, finds that a slight majority of people in Springfield favor a relaxation of the citywide smoking ban, which went into effect on Sept. 17. Ask Illinois, a Springfield-based market-research firm, conducted the automated survey of 31,000 registered Springfield voters on ILBA’s behalf…
Enough basic training
The Guardian is a rare military movie in that it focuses on the Coast Guard, but ultimately it is also much different from other noncombat films. The absolute need for major conflict results in the same overused plotline, which can be boiled down to two words: basic training. Apparently the rest of military life isn’t…
Bush has a COW
When George W. Bush talks publicly about his war in Iraq, he always points to his multinational partners, dubbing them the “coalition of the willing” — or COW. But who are these partners, and how willing are they, really? Actually, of 192 nations in the world, only 48 — including such mighty military machines as…
Hitting the bricks
Dear Gene: I live in a 50-year-old brick house. The material surrounding some of the bricks has disintegrated, and the surface of some bricks also shows damage. How can this be fixed without replacing the damaged areas? The damage is caused by the penetration of moisture into the wall resulting from deterioration of the mortar…
The alternative
A judge on Wednesday quashed a subpoena that would have compelled Illinois Times reporter Dusty Rhodes to surrender a summary of the Illinois State Police investigation of two Springfield police detectives. Circuit Court Judge Leo Zappa instead directed the city of Springfield to provide a copy of the same document, as well as a resignation…
Spinach plan B begins with a C
By the time you read this column, will the Escherichia coli spinach mystery involving 23 states be solved? Who knows? Regardless of the spinachy state of America, life must go on, and we gotta keep eating our vegetables. Consider the spinach hiatus an opportunity; after all, it’s not the only big green name in town.…
People’s Poetry
aroundtown poem #12 for a long time until they kicked me out I belonged to the vachel lindsay association I still have a soft spot for vachel rhymes with rachel and all that my schoolkids did with further variations on his moon poems then what about those dancing potatoes kicking up the sand anyway we…
